E-Tools Newsletter | May 2013

Welcome to our May E-Tools Newsletter! This monthly TCC field report also includes helpful outreach resources to encourage and equip you to more faithfully share the Gospel with all the loved ones in your life as we witness for Christ in Canada together.

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A CHAMPIONS ROUND TABLE REUNION

The 2013 Church Champions Round Table Graduates

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Church Champions Training Retreats with The Cross Current equip evangelists to champion the cause of the Gospel long-term in their local churches.

These onsite and offsite outreach retreats allow leaders to leverage our local missions experience toward training and sustaining their entire churches to normalize sharing the Gospel in all personal and community relationships.

In May of 2012, TCC equipped twelve evangelists from eight local churches with a field-tested foundation for more faithful Gospel proclamation, and then released each with a practical plan of church-wide implementation.

Our ministry leaders also committed to following up and following through with the graduates and their churches by journeying together through a common ministry calendar of training times and missions trips over the next twelve months.

One Year Later

This month we invited all the training graduates from last year back to be part of our first ChurchChampionsRoundTable; a peer to peer discipleship weekend that The Cross Current hosted free of charge to all participants.

Left: The Champions pray together around the table before starting discussion

This interactive event facilitated a fellowship opportunity for the equipping evangelists we have trained to testify and teach one another in follow-up to the sessions from last year’s ChurchChampions Training Retreat.

Our retreat motto was: “Where evangelists are equal with Christ as Head”. Not only did we hit the streets to experience the power of open air Gospel proclamation together, but we also hit “the Book” to learn more about being and equipping biblical witnesses in the context of our local churches.

Right: Equipping evangelists surrendering all during praise and prayer

Special thanks to Steve Toombs, Worship Pastor of Harvest Bible Chapel London, for leading us in such a special time of praise and prayer together.

Champ Chat

Here are just a few of the encouraging testimonies from the Church Champions who attended the Round Table training event this month:

Dave Jagt | Oakville, Ontario

Taking time to reflect on the Church Champions round table weekend causes me to be very thankful for the opportunity to be involved. I was greatly blessed in many different ways:

Greatly impacted with the idea of seeing myself as an equipping evangelist. Desiring to be faithful with this calling as much as possible in the strength of the Lord.

Tremendously blessed by the fellowship among like-minded, gospel saturated believers.

Feeling privileged to share in one of the most blessed times of collective worship I have ever been involved in. This time of prayer was perhaps the most impacting portion of the weekend. It has caused me to yearn for more times of worship like this one. One thing I will ‘take-away’ from the weekend is the desire to help facilitate more prayer and worship in closer connection with our weekly outreach.

Thankful for the hospitality and generosity of my host for the weekend, Tom, who is a field representative for The Cross Current.

Impacted by the training and instruction, especially the biblical apologetics sessions. Looking forward to using some of the wisdom provided in defending the truth, giving a reason for the hope that I have, with gentleness and respect.

Desire for ongoing fellowship with Cory and others in order to keep the flame burning brightly with continued urgency for the gospel.

Feeling burdened to ‘normalize’ evangelism within my church body at Harvest Oakville.

Thanks so much Cory for your work in preparing for and leading the weekend, and may God richly bless you and your family, brother, and continue to use you in advancing the kingdom of Jesus Christ!

Tom Briggs | St. Thomas, Ontario

I was so blessed and privileged to attend the Church Champions Round Table training weekend on May 10th and 11th. How inspiring it was for me to be part of a team preaching and presenting the Gospel in a local missions context.

I am so thankful for the time of Spirit lead preparation and implementation which was fulfilled during our day together on May 11th: In spirit, truth and love we spent the day in ‘vision sharing’, in prayer, in worship and in fellowship. How important it now has become for me to invite, encourage and challenge others within the Body of Christ (in my home community and beyond) to heed God’s call to local missions.

God is ‘enlarging the boarders’ of the TCC Ministry: God’s hand on the TCC Ministry goes beyond London and a network of other Harvest churches; it is impacting other evangelical churches as well.

Thank God for the TCC leadership He has ‘raised up’ and for the others He has ‘trained up’ to be part of His Kingdom Building Work!

Eric Schneider | Cambridge, Ontario

This year I attended the Church Champions Round Table event with The Cross Current.

It was a real encouragement for me to spend time with so many like-minded men and women who have a true passion to bring the gospel to the lost in their own local mission field. I was personally challenged, and learned a lot during my time with them.

What I have taken away from it all is a better understanding of what my role as an equipping evangelist is within my own church, as well as practical and biblical ways that we can equip our church to see evangelism as a normal everyday component of their walk.

I expect that as we move forward in equipping the body of Christ in our church, the training and discussion from that weekend will prove most beneficial.

Caroline Hales | Oakville, Ontario

Thank you again for allowing me to be a part of the Church Champions Round Table this past weekend. I was excited to attend to be encouraged by what other evangelists are doing. And God answered my prayers to hear stories of what He is doing in other churches.

I enjoyed the discussions on what an evangelism ministry looks like in other churches and came back with many great ideas to share, pray about and consider applying in our church to further encourage all believers to share the gospel with others.

It was a great workshop. Keep up the good work for the kingdom!

Got Training?

Are you an equipping evangelist looking to learn more about championing the cause of the Gospel in your local church?

The Cross Current (TCC) is a local missions ministry that equips by example. This month we rolled out a brand new one-day intensive training seminar called “Being Biblical Witnesses” that was delivered at Maple City Baptist Church (MCBC) in Chatham, Ontario.

What are Biblical witnesses? Biblical witnesses are a church of Christ-followers chosen and empowered by God to verbally testify to the truth of Jesus and the Gospel. Scripturally speaking, here is how “Being Biblical Witnesses” adds up for TCC: Biblical EVANGELISM + Biblical APOLOGETICS = Biblical WITNESS.

We believe that Biblical evangelism (advancing the Gospel) plus Biblical apologetics (defending the Gospel) equals being a Biblical witness (i.e. an ambassador of the Gospel). Within this framework, over four interactive sessions we open the Bible together to learn God’s guidelines for both evangelism and apologetics within the local church.

The formal training in the classroom is capped off with field training in the community as we take the Word to the streets to experience the power of these Biblical principles in action.

Here are a few encouraging words from the Dan Christiaan, one of the two pastors of MCBC who sat under the “Being Biblical Witnesses” training with several others from their congregation this month:

Thanks again for the wonderful training you put on and for pushing us to be more bold in our witness for Christ.

After more than eight months of research and development, the One to One Worldview Witnessing Tracts that we have been preparing in partnership with Sye Ten Bruggencate of Absolute Apologetics are finally here!

As you share the Gospel, the fronts of these tracts present a series of simple, probing questions that will expose the foolishness of the unbeliever’s false belief system. The common back of the tracts leads the unbeliever to understand the dire consequences of willfully ignoring God, before presenting The Answer: Jesus Christ.

Using God and His Word as your starting point, now you will be prepared to gently and respectfully give an answer for the hope that’s in you by exposing the contradictory claims of the following 8 major non-Christian worldviews:

Atheism/Agnosticism

Cultural Christianity

Eastern Philosophies

Islam

Jehovah’s Witness

Judaism

Mormonism

Roman Catholicism

Your One to One Worldview Witnessing “Tract Pack” contains 12 bookmark-style tracts for each major worldview (96 total tracts) with each conveniently colored for quick reference. Also included is one handy Index tract to provide you with a convenient step by step guide to better understand how the biblical defense on each tract has been presented.

There is also a large panel of white-space on the bottom portion of the tract for manually placing your church contact information.

We trust that these witnessing tools will equip Christ-followers everywhere to more faithfully advance and defend the Gospel of Jesus Christ!

The Cross Current Radio Show is a spiritual speakers corner broadcast and podcast that equips Christians with truthful answers to tough questions from the studio and eye-opening (unscripted) evangelistic conversation clips from the street.

TCC Radio also facilitates a relational and entertaining way for you to invite the non-Christians in your life to hear the clear and life-transforming truth of God’s Word.

Are you looking to learn first-hand how to be more faithful in the witnessing field? Tune in and tell all now!

Let’s continue partnering together to keep our prayer pulse for TCC and the Church in Canada strong!

There are four specific petitions that we humbly request that you, your family, and your church continue lifting up to the Lord on our behalf related to our ministry calendar in June and throughout the rest of the year:

As mentoring evangelists to lead their own local church witnessing teams is a huge part of fulfilling our mission, please pray that the Lord will help us faithfully coordinate and complete our two Extreme Team Missions to Niagara Falls this summer.

As helping churches “normalize” sharing the Gospel with lost loved ones is a top priority for our ministry to pastors, please pray for the overall fruitfulness of our upcoming training times in local churches.

As equipping evangelists within local churches is the heartbeat of The Cross Current, please pray that the Lord will help us receive all the support we need to host more Church Champions Training Retreats.

As outreach radio expansion is one of our major objectives for 2013, please pray that the Lord helps us equip and release additional TCC radio representatives as more partner churches and radio stations embrace the partnership opportunities associated with our outreach broadcast.

Canada needs Christ! Please pray that God will speak to the hearts of more and more supporters who will financially support our work of equipping by example pastors, Christians, and their churches to share the Gospel in Canada.